The present invention relates to an article or goods display control method, an article or goods guide method, and a system of the same suitable for obtaining merchandising information to control sales and stock amounts of articles in a store.
There has been known an information system for distribution industries called a planogram or a facing control expert system. This system helps make an article display plan and outputs on a display an image of an article display state (reference is to be made to pages 67 to 72 of Hitachi Hyoron, Vol. 71, No. 2 and to U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,322). In the conventional system, there is produced an image similar to a patchwork presenting various images of articles and goods respectively viewed from a front side thereof like an image of a front view of a display shelf of a supermarket. Moreover, this system is designed on the assumption that the articles are to be displayed or arranged at the respective predetermined positions on the display shelves. In consequence, information of positions beforehand assigned to the respective articles or items are inputted to a computer system so as to generate an article display image based on the display positions.
An example of an article guide system using information outputted from an article display control system of this type is as follows.
As a conventional article guide system aiming at helping a sales job in a store or shop handling dresses and ornaments or accessories associated therewith, there has been known, for example, an electronic dress check system called "Magic Mirror" described in Hightech Merchandising Method in the U.S. III. Merchandising In Store/Mall" (Nikkei data Pro-Marketing System, October 1988, MA1-600-006).
In this electronic dress check system, a customer first specifies a desired dress and an ornament therefor from a catalogue of dresses and ornaments. The store employee supplies the system with numbers respectively of the specified dress and accessory together with a body shape and a face contour of the customer. In response to these supplied items, the system generates and displays an image on which the specified dress and accessory are projected onto the contour of the body with the face of the customer.
Consequently, in this system, the customer need not actually try on the dress. Namely, based on the display image in which the customer seems to actually put the dress on, it is possible for the customer to check the dress for suitability before a decision is made for the purchase of the dress.
As a result, for the store side as well as for the customer, the period of time conventionally required to try on the dress and an ornament therefor can be dispensed with; namely, a time-saving effect is achieved.